TORONTO – Rogers Media today cleared the final hurdle in its bid to acquire Score Media after receiving regulatory approval from the CRTC.
With today’s approval, Rogers Media can now start to integrate and rebrand the channel, which has been in trust since October 19, 2012, under the Sportsnet umbrella. Rogers’ acquisition of Score Media cost $167 million, and includes The Score, Canada’s third largest specialty sports channel with 6.6 million television subscribers, closed captioning service Voice to Visual Inc., and mixed martial arts program The Score Fighting Series. The rebranded channel will be unveiled…
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GATINEAU – That broadcast distributors would increase the price of basic packages if the CRTC licensed new 9(1)(h) services is a red herring, according the Canadian Media Production Association (CPMA) told commissioners on Tuesday.
“We believe that the impact of 9(1)(h) services on ‘affordability’ is a red herring that threatens to overshadow the achievement of more significant objectives under the Act,” Michael Hennessy, president and CEO of the CMPA, said during his opening remarks.
The association acknowledges that licensing additional services with mandatory carriage orders may trigger basic package rate increases, but it says this isn’t the sole reason broadcast…
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OTTAWA – Canadian broadcasters spent a record $177 million on public benefits related to the acquisition of regulated Canadian broadcast television assets in the 2011-2012 broadcast year ended August 31, 2012, according to new research from consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services.
The level of English-language television benefits spending by various Canadian broadcasters in 2011-2012 more than tripled from the amount ($52 million) spent in the previous year.
That $177 million is roughly the same amount as what was spent on tangible benefits in the previous four years combined – or almost as much as…
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GATINEAU – Shaw Communications was the first broadcast distributor to take the stand before the CRTC?s 9(1)(h) hearing on Monday and it appealed to the Commission to ensure that it maintained high standards when considering additional channels for mandatory carriage.
Jean Brazeau, senior VP of regulatory at Shaw, noted during his opening remarks that exceptional importance should be the minimum threshold that channels need to meet to achieve mandatory carriage status. ?Once satisfied, the applicant still must meet the additional criteria. This includes demonstrating ?extraordinary? need among an intended audience and widespread acceptance by Canadians of an increase in the…
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MONTREAL – Bell learned its lesson after the CRTC refused its request to acquire Astral Media last fall and, among other things, the company won't be making any surprise changes to its proposal when it goes in front of the commission May 6 for its second attempt.
That's what Bell Media president Kevin Crull told reporters Friday after a speech to the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television in Montreal. In that speech, delivered in English in the presence of Astral executives Ian Greenberg and Jacques Parisien, he reassured francophone TV and film producers that the acquisition would result in…
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OTTAWA – More than a year after announcing its launch, the CRTC has activated the Broadcasting Participation Fund.
The Commission made the announcement via Twitter Friday. The independent fund, which originated with $3 million in benefits proposed by BCE when it purchased CTVglobemedia in 2011, is designed to aid public interest groups and consumer groups offset their costs of participating in broadcast hearings before the Commission.
The CRTC approved the proposal to establish the BPF on March 26, 2012. The fund’s new website attributed the year-long delay to the time needed to finalize the fund’s…
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TORONTO – The Ontario government announced today it is proposing legislation that would make cell phone and wireless service contracts easier for consumers to understand.
The proposed legislation, if passed, would require wireless carriers’ contracts to be written in plain language that clearly outlines which services come with the basic fee, and which would result in a higher bill. It would also require providers to get consent from the consumer before amending, renewing or extending a fixed-term contract. In addition, the legislation would enforce a cap on cancellation fees to make it less…
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OTTAWA – Consumer rights group the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) urged the CRTC today to keep basic television service affordable by not asking consumers to pay for “unnecessary” mandatory carriage services.
At a Commission hearing today on applications for mandatory distribution on basic television service, PIAC appeared on behalf of the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC), Council of Senior Citizens’ Organizations of British Columbia (COSCO), and National Pensioners and Senior Citizens Federation (NPSCF). PIAC asked the CRTC to grant mandatory distribution only in exceptional cases so that consumers would not be burdened with higher costs…
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OTTAWA and KITCHENER-WATERLOO, ON – CBC Radio’s Waterloo Region morning show will resume its broadcast Friday morning after receiving CRTC approval of its broadcast license Thursday afternoon – which it didn’t have when it first launched the station last month.
CBC Radio called the mistake an “operational error,” and suspended the show late Tuesday following a complaint filed with the CRTC by the Ontario Association of Broadcaster’s government committee that the station had launched without CRTC approval.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Record quoted CBC spokesperson Angus McKinnon, who said, “This was a very regrettable…
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GATINEAU – Canadian feature films, along with some big-name filmmakers, took centre stage at the CRTC’s 9(1)(h) hearing on Thursday when Starlight: The Canadian Movie Channel, armed with a panel of noted Canadian film personalities such as Paul Gross, Denys Arcand, David Cronenberg and others, appeared to defend its application for mandatory carriage on digital basic.
Describing Canadian feature films as the “orphans in our broadcasting system,” well known TV and film producer Robert Lantos argued that the CRTC has to fix this imbalance where Canadians “have been denied affordable access to them” by granting Starlight the requested 9(1)(h) status…
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